Welsh National Opera ordered to pay £100k to unfairly sacked oboist

The Welsh National Opera (WNO) has been ordered to pay more than £100,000 in legal costs and compensation to an oboist it unfairly sacked.

The Welsh National Opera (WNO) has been ordered to pay more than £100,000 in legal costs and compensation to an oboist it unfairly sacked.

Murray “Sandy” Johnston said the ruling had “vindicated” his stance and struck a below for musicians.

Mr Johnston won his long-running unfair dismissal case at the Court of Appeal last July and was this week awarded the maximum compensation allowed.

His 34-year career with the WNO ended in 2008 after the opera claimed his playing had dropped below the company’s high standards.

The 63-year-old, of Radyr, Cardiff, took the WNO to an employment tribunal in 2011, where his lawyer alleged Mr Johnston had been “bullied” by the opera’s then music director Carlo Rizzi.

The tribunal ruled the WNO was within its rights to sack Mr Johnston, but that decision was overturned by judges at the Court of Appeal, who said a finding of procedural unfairness was “inevitable”.

The case was referred back to the original tribunal who this week awarded £73,000 in compensation. The sum is on top of Mr Johnston’s £32,000 in legal costs which the WNO – a registered charity – was told to pay last year.

Mr Johnston said he hoped the ruling heralded the end of the long-running saga, but he was cautious about whether “the fat lady had sung yet”.

“I feel vindicated in having taken the stance I did, I wouldn’t have stuck at it for the last four year years if I hadn’t felt absolutely justified in my position,” he said.

“I thought it was a very unfair dismissal in extraordinary circumstances and should never have happened. That was an opinion that was shared by most sane people.”

Mr Johnston said the sacking had severely dented his confidence, bringing into question the entire his history of his working life.

“All of a sudden you had to question all that and say: ‘Perhaps I wasn’t very good.’ But at the back of your mind you know you were and you have a long recording history,” he said.

He has since worked as a freelance player, saying the “outrage” at his dismissal within the industry had led to opportunities to perform with other orchestras.

Mr Johnston said he didn’t have any strong feelings towards the WNO or Carlo Rizzi, but hoped the ruling had struck a blow for musicians.

“It was a test case as far as the musical profession was concerned, it means that managers basically can’t just drive a cart and horses through their own contracts if they feel like parting company with one of their members,” he said.

Chris Mayers, partner at law firm MLM Cartwright, said he planned to write to the Welsh Government to question the legal costs the WNO had run-up defending itself.

Mr Johnston added: “It’s public money, it’s a listed charity and they have spent between three and four times the actual worth of the case.

“I would sincerely hope that questions are being asked in the right places, like the Welsh Assembly and the Arts Council, as to whether this was a proper use of public funds.”

Peter Bellingham, WNO managing director, said: "Naturally we are very disappointed in the eventual outcome of this long-standing case. However, it is important to remember that the original Tribunal, which heard evidence from a number of people over four days, found in the company’s favour.

"The Tribunal accepted that we had genuine concerns about Mr Johnston’s playing and, as a world class company, we could not simply sit back and do nothing about them. In the original Tribunal’s extensive written judgement, the company’s handling of the situation was found to be fair.

"The Court of Appeal, which didn’t hear evidence but relied only on legal submissions, found that there had been a procedural flaw. This revolved around the interpretation of a contractual clause relating to poor performance.

"At the time of the issue, the company and the Musicians’ Union (who operate the collective contract on behalf of the orchestra players) were in agreement about how this clause could and couldn’t be used. Unfortunately, the Court of Appeal took a different view. When the matter was brought back to the original Tribunal panel, it was legally bound to apply the finding from the Court of Appeal and the final judgement and award was made on that basis.

"At this week’s hearing, the panel unanimously rejected an application from Mr. Johnston to be re-engaged. They were also unanimous in their rejection of a costs application from Mr. Johnston for the costs of the hearing this week. A decision not to reduce the level of award was made only on a split decision of the three-person Tribunal panel.

"On the issue of the legal costs, which have been the subject of some inaccurate speculation, I am not prepared to discuss the figure in public, except to say that most of our costs are covered by insurance.

"We have been criticised by Mr. Johnston’s legal team for what is in their view an inappropriate use of public funds. There are two responses to that. Firstly, as a publicly-funded company, we are still bound by the law and we must be able to use the law to defend our position when required. Secondly, we attempted to resolve this issue on a number of occasions, both before the case was heard and during the process; on each occasion our proposals were rejected by Mr. Johnston and his team.

"For WNO, the core issue has always been to maintain the highest standards of the WNO Orchestra and I am delighted to say that the orchestra’s reputation has never been higher. We will now put the disappointment to one side and concentrate on with what we do best, which is produce world class opera for the people of Wales and beyond."

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